William knowles



(No Model.)

W. KNOWLES. GOVERNOR FOR STEAM ENGINES.

No. 282,908. Patented Aug. 7, 1883.

Inventor.

Witnesses."

L Z Q Ma A M Z y j N. PETERS. Phowmmm hu. Wuhinghm. D. c.

UNITE STATES- [PATENT O F CEOE WILLIAM KNOVLES, OF BOLTON, COUNTY OF LANCASTER, ENGLAND.

GOVERNOR FOR STEAM-ENGINES.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters- Patent No. 282,908, dated August 7, 1883. Application filed July 10, 1883. (No model.) Patented in England January 21, 1882, No. illO.

To a whom it may concern.-

Be it known that 1, WILLIAM KNOWLES, a subject of the Queen of Great Britain and Ireland, residing at Bolton, in the county of Lancaster, England, have invented a new and useful Improvement in Governors for Steam-Engines, (for which I have obtained Letters Patent in England, No. 310, bearing date January 21, 1882,) of which the following is aspecification.

In my specification forming part of Letters Patent of the United States No. 279,097, dated June 5, 1883, I set forth one genus of devices described and claimed in my said English patent as means for the accomplishment of a certain general object or result in the operation of governors for steam-enginesor, in other words, the control of steam-engine valves and cut-offs. My present invention consists in another genus of devices and a preferred species thereof, described and claimed in said English patent, for accomplishing the same general result or object in a somewhat different way. The object common to both of these inventions, or both parts of my general invention, is to reduce to a minimum variations of speed in steam engines, due to increases or decreases of pressure or load. v

The basis of the invention described and claimed in my previous specification aforesaid is extensible and contractible connections? communicating between the ordinary or main governor and the throttle-valve or cu'troif, with Fmeans for automatically extending and contracting said connections as the speed of the engine varies, with or without the aid of a supplementary governor. may be impossible or difficult, or undesirable, to use at all or toso operate an extensible and contraetible joint in the engine-connections. My present invention therefore provides for automatically accomplishing the same general result instead, with a supplementary governor as its basis, by causing an aiding or expediting deviceto act upon theconnections between the main governor and the valve or cut-off, at any convenient point or points, through the medium of a forked lever or its equivalent and suitable connections, by means ofthe supplementary governor, which thus anticipates and facilitates the work of the main governor, or assists the main governor and quickens its action on the In some instances it valve or cut-off, as the case may be, so as to reduce the extent of variations in the speed of the engine. An engine may be thus kept almost exactly at its normal speed.

A sheet of drawings accompanies this speei fication as part thereof. Figures 1 and 2 of these drawings are diagram elevations of two forms of governor mechanism, illustrating, respectively, the use of aiding or expediting springs and weights according to this invention. I

Like letters of reference indicate correspond ing parts in both figures.

g in each figure represents an ordinary ballgovernor;'and c, a connecting rod or stem operated more or less directly by said governor, and serving to transmit motion therefrom to the throttle-valve or cut-off of a steam-engine; and represents a supplementary governor connected with the same rod or stem, and driven, as is said main governor g, from some convenient rotary part of the engine. The balls of said supplementary governor are in each case connected to a sleeve, 8, adapted to slide upon its spindle and to rotate therewith, carrying frictiondisks f g at its respective ends; and a friction-pulley, h, on a shaft, 17, perpendicular to said spindle of the supplementary governor, is so supported between said disks fg that at the normal speed of the engine it is out of contact with both of said disks, and said shaft 6 remains stationary, but when the speed of the engine rises or falls above or below a given close limit said disks fg respectively come in contact with the periphery of said pulley h and turn said shaft in one direction or the other, as set forth in said Patent No. 27 9, 097 This transmitting mechanism is preferred for general use, owing to its simplicity and sensitiveness; but other known devices may be substituted therefor to produce the same result without departing from my invention. Likewise, in each figure f repre sents a forked lever having a central pivot, p,

and a forked extremity, which'embraces a studpin or pair of stud-pins,' p, on said rod or stem 0, as illustrative means for connecting an aid ing or expediting device to said rod or stem without cutting or dividing the latter. In the mechanism represented by Fig; 1 said shaft z carries, at its extremity opposite to that upon which said friction-pulley h is fast, a miter IOO wheel, j, meshing with a similar wheel, k", preferably of the same or a smaller diameter, the latter fast upon one end of a screw-shaft, Z, provided with a continuous screw-thread which carries a pair of non-rotary traveling nuts, n at, having arms or projections from which a pair of spiral springs, 8 s extend to the extremity of said lever f, opposite to its said forked extremity. As said nuts travel in either direction it will be seen that the springs s s are respectively put in tension and compressed, more or less, so that one of them tends to push and the other to pull said 63% tremity of said lever f, and therethrough to move said connection 0 in one and the same direction. The parts are so constructed and arranged that when said friction-diskf, Fig. 1, is brought into contact with the periphery of said friction-pulley 71, by a decrease in the speed of the engine motion is so transmitted through said shaft 1', miter-wheels j it, screwshaft 1, nuts 11 n springs s s, and lever f to said connection 0 as to tend to open the throttle-valve wider, or so shift the cut-off as to illerease the speed of the engine; and, cone spondingly, when through increasing speed of the engine said friction-disk g is brought into contact with said friction-pulley h motion is so transmitted to said nuts a n that said springs s s" will be made to tend to so move said leverf, and therethrough said connection 0, as to close the throttlevalve more or less, or so act on the cut-off as toreduce the speed of the. engine. In the mechanism represented by Fig. 2 said shaft 'i which receives motion in one direction or the other from the supple mentary governor 9 according to whether the speed of the engine is increasing or decreasing, is itself a screw-shaft having a continu ous thread, to which a tr. vcling nut, a, is fitted. This traveling nut is connected by a link or links, Z preferably a pair of links, to a weight, 'w, fitted to said extremity of said lever f, opposite to its forked extremity, so as to slide thereon, and, by its proximity to or distance from the fulcrum of said lever f, to act through said lever upon said connection 0 with less or greater tendency to overcome the inertia of the main governor g, and thus facilitate or quicken its action in opening the valve wider, or so acting upon the cut-off as to increase the speed of the engine.

By using a pair of weights on the respect ive ends of the lever f, or so locating said weight 10 that when the engine is running at normal speed it is balanced upon the fulcrumof said lever and projects equally on the respective. sides thereof, the mechanism shown in Fig. 2 may be rendered double acting, like that shown in Fig. 1, and by omitting one of the springs s s" this maybe rendered single more sensitive to change in speed; but this is not considered essential, as a second governor of one and the same size or speed connected with the rod or stem 0, or an equivalent part of the connections between an ordinary or main governor and the valve or cut-off in either of the ways above set forth, or in any equivalent way, would greatly facilitate and quicken the operation of said ordinary or main governor, and thus aid in keeping the speed. of the engine uniform or regular.

The respective governors may be of any approved pattern or make, and various other forms of aiding or expediting devices may be combined therewith without materially changing the result and mode of operation above set forth.

Having thus described my present improvement in governors for steam-engines, I'claim as my invention, and desire to patent under this specification-.-

1. In combination with an ordinary or main governor and connections transmitting motion therefrom to a throttle-valve or cutoff, a supplementary governor, aiding or expediting devices controlled thereby, and means for transmitting motion from said devices to said connections, substantially as herein described, for automatically assisting said ordinary or main governor by force applied in the proper direction to equalize the speed of the engine, in the manner set forth.

2. The combination, substantially as herein specified, of an ordinary or main governor, .a rod or stem transmitting motion from said governor to a throttle-valve or cut-off, springs or weights connected with said rod or stem and adapted to aid in moving the same, and means connected with said springs or weights for shifting the latter, comprising a supplementary gov ernor to automatically control or vary their action, in the manner set forth, for equalizing the speed of the engine.

3. The combination of the supplementary governor g rotary sleeve 8, friction-disksf frictionpulley h, shaft i, miter -wheels j k, screw-shaft Z, and a traveling nut or nuts upon said' screw shaft, with a spring or springs stretched from projections on said nuts to a transmitting-lever, f, substantially as shown and described, for the purpose set forth.

WILLIAM KNOVLFS.

Vitnesses:

HENRY M. ORMEROD,

Notary Public, flfimclmsler. \YM. HULNEY,

His (Jerk.

IIO 

